Articles on Liz Lloyd || Technical content creator

Fixing my car

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:14:37 +0100

Fixing my car - August 2026

This is my car:

It's a Ford Focus MK3 Ecoboost 1L 125ps (6 speed). It's on about 87k miles and it's 14 years old. It has stubbornly refused all efforts to give it a name in the five years I've had it. I really love it.

How infrastructure works by Deb Chachra

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:08:10 +0100

How infrastructure works - Deb Chachra

I'm only partway through and this is such a brilliant book. I had to share something in particular even before I've finished.

As background: the book starts by explaining how infrastructure is something that benefits everyone. The example of water supply is used as an example: rich people could theoretically afford to have their own private water supply if they wanted, without having to benefit the poor. But it's actually beneficial to the rich people to spend even more money and build a water supply that benefits everyone. Not just because it makes their own supply perhaps a bit cheaper once it's running, but because having the people surrounding them also supplied with clean water reduces disease, which could then infect the rich people. Even from a purely selfish standpoint, infrastructure that benefits everyone is a good thing, actually.

Finding enzymes for plastic recycling using AI

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Using AI to come up with new enzymes

This article, from phys.org, begins: "As the use of AI spreads through every industry and becomes more of a part of our lives every day, researchers are also looking into ways it can be used to solve some of the world's biggest problems." This definitely feels like they're drawing on the rapid metastasising of generative AI: let's dive in and see if someone has actually found a use for it, or if this is just another case of reflected glory.

Rothamstead Research: Using AI to spot weeds in fields

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 15:19:57 +0100

Using AI to optimise farming

On 4th November 2025, the BBC published the following article: AI used to spot weeds growing in farmers' fields.

This is the first entry in my planned 'AIdentifier' series, where I dig into headlines about AI achieving useful things in an attempt to find out if generative AI has any uses at all.

Introduction

The BBC article links off to an article on the Bosch website, as they were using Bosch cameras and Bosch machinery to do the spraying. Unfortunately, neither the BBC nor the Bosch articles have much in the way of detail on how the work was carried out.

How do I decide if something is generative AI?

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000

What do I consider to be generative AI?

GenAI tools are normally built on top of one of just a few foundational models, such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude (for text generation) or DALL-E, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney (for image generation).
GenAI foundational models need huge amounts of training data. Most of this has been acquired through illegal means.
GenAI foundational models need huge amounts of power to run. They are run in data centres, not on your own machine.

I consider something to be GenAI if it uses one of the big foundational models mentioned in point 1 (not an exhaustive list). Models built on top of those foundational models also count.

What are sun dogs?

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000

What are sun dogs?

Introduction

Sun dogs are also called parhelia (singular: parhelion, from "para" – beside; helios – the sun. From Greek). Nobody can agree where the name "sun dog" came from, though.

They're an atmospheric phenomenon, where a bright spot appears either side of the sun.

Source: Gopherboy6956 / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Where I'm from, the existence of sun dogs is common knowledge. And when I say "where I'm from", I mean the small village on the Welsh borders, population roughly 1000. The village is only a mile or so from Mortimer's Cross, the site of one of the battles of the English Civil War.

What is, and isn't AI?

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000

What is, and isn't, AI?

Generative AI is an absolute triumph of marketing. I feel like, in most people's heads, all AI is generative AI. And not only that, it seems that for some people, anything done by a computer is AI (and therefore anything done by a computer is generative AI).

In this article, I will attempt to explain how not everything a computer does is AI, and not all AI is generative AI, in the hope that people can better understand the technology around us. I believe that AI is a good thing for humanity, but it must be done right.

Avoiding Gemini

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000

God, gemini just sucks ass doesn't it

Like probably most people here in neocities, I'm sick of algorithms serving up what a computer arbitrarily thinks I want to see. Generative AI is the culmination of years of things just being made shitter. I hate everything about it and everything it stands for.

Everyone knows google search has just been getting rubbisher and rubbisher. I reached breaking point before they started giving you a gemini vomit at the top of each page, but not long before. I tried swapping to duckduckgo and it pains me to admit it but, as awful as google search is now, it's still marginally better than Bing.

A quick guide to PID controllers

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000

A quick guide on PID controllers

I got a bit excited in my F1 article, so I thought I'd better give a quick explanation of what a PID controller is. PID stands for Proportional, Integral, Differential. A controller can just have a P term so it would be a proportional controller. It can also have I and D terms, but it doesn't have to have both.

Introduction

To explain about controllers, I'm going to use the example of a central heating system. I'm British so we don't typically have air con, just heating.

Not everything is AI actually

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000

This article on AI in F1 was shared around at work.

My first reaction was to roll my eyes and delete the email.
A few days later I decided I was sick of it living rent-free in my head and I decided to deal with it.
This is the article and my reaction.

I strongly believe in crediting people, so here's a link to the original article: F1.

The original article is in "quotes".

Animal etymology

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Animal etymology

A gerbil is a small cute pet, quite like a hamster.

A French scientist first named them in 1867, giving them the latin name gerbillus unguiculatus. They live in the plains and steppes around Mongolia, China and Russia. Gerbils belong to a group of species called desert rats, which feels really harsh.

Image credit: Alistair Rae on Flickr
licence

Image credit: Sergey Yeliseev on Flickr
licence

A jerboa is like a tiny tiny kangaroo.

Using a VNA to design antennas for GPS interference detection

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Using a VNA to design antennas for GPS interference detection

This article appeared in Microwaves and RF and has been published here with permission.

Introduction

GPS interference can come in many forms. The most well-known is intentional jamming or spoofing, denying GPS for (typically nefarious) reasons – it is common knowledge that parts of the Middle East are denied GPS service, and there have been cases of ships in the Black Sea suddenly reporting being located 25 nautical miles away, inland, at an airport.

I wrote to my MP

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000

I wrote to my MP.

I am so hacked off about the Supreme Court decision on trans people. As the BMA says, it's medically unsound. It's also just bigoted.

I've written to my MP about it. I'm a cis woman so my voice is vital on this matter. Also, as a cis white woman, I had to make a good chunk of the email about me. (I hope that it means they listen rather than going 'eh, trans person, must be mentally ill, gonna ignore it').

Things that help my ADHD

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000

I have ADHD.

(Written 20th Jan 2025)

The ADHD is recently diagnosed and I'm in a state of... I guess, making sure I'm aware that my brain is different and I am going to struggle with things forever, and beating myself up about it won't fix it. Instead I'm trying to find ways to work with my brain.

Beating myself up about it - Before the ADHD diagnosis I previously got diagnosed with depression. Some therapy made me realise that the main problem is a complete lack of self-esteem, a lot of it due to growing up female-presenting in the 1990s and therefore neurodiverse diagnoses not even being considered. It's going to take a long time to unlearn all that internalised "you're lazy", "you're doing it wrong", "you're weird" and all of that.